HOT UNDER PRESSURE – Louisa Edwards
A Rising Star Chef Novel, Book 3
St. Martin's Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-312-53440-0
April 2012
Contemporary Romance

San Francisco, California – Present Day

It's down to the final challenge in the Rising Star Chef competition, and for Henry Beck and Skye Gladwell it means more than being rivals. They share a tragic past that few know about. But now that Henry and Skye are together again (so to speak), it's time to face the music. They married young, but their marriage couldn't survive her miscarriage and his long absences serving on a military submarine. Yet they both found themselves on a path that leads them back to where they began—in San Francisco . Both want to win the Rising Star Chef competition, but it means squaring off against each other. Will their past play a part in who wins the competition?

Skye was raised by hippie parents who thought her career path into restaurant work was a cop-out to society and what they felt was her true spiritual being. She has made it far enough to open her own restaurant, but needs the win for the money and publicity. While Skye has built a new life for herself, with a new man in her life she wants to marry, she still hasn't forgotten Henry. But his abandonment of her at the time of her greatest need years ago has left its mark on her. She sees him as selfish and emotionless. Now is her opportunity to get a divorce and put Henry firmly into her past. But it is as though Skye's request for a divorce pulls Henry out of a vacuum…he counters with an ultimatum of his own: if he wins the RSC contest, he gets one last night with her.

There's more than food being diced, cooked, and served up in HOT UNDER PRESSURE. Ten years ago, Skye and Henry fell madly in love, but great sex couldn't pay the bills after she got pregnant. Henry joined the service and thought he was doing the right thing for Skye and the baby, but she lost the baby—and Henry when he blamed himself. There was never a sense of closure, or a divorce, so now is her opportunity to get one and put Henry behind her. The competition will be tough, but the toll on her emotions will be greater as memories of their life together assail her. For Henry, life wasn't easy for him, but meeting Skye all those years ago was a happy time for him. He thought they had a future together, yet it all fell apart when he couldn't be there for her. He wants one last chance to experience how good they were together. Or is he fooling himself that he can then turn around and walk away?

While Skye doesn't necessarily agree with her parents views, they have still shaped who she has become. Her new boyfriend, Jeremiah, has the stamp of approval by them, so she thinks she will be happy coming in second to his work. Her main passion is cooking, which has let her forget the pain she felt after losing the baby. But with Henry's challenge of winning her back into his bed, does she really want to win just to thwart  him—or does she want him for one last time before she says good bye?

Louisa Edwards has penned a tasty treat in HOT UNDER PRESSURE. If you have seen any of the cooking shows on television, then you know there's a lot more to cooking than just whipping up a recipe. There is tension, mind games, and topnotch pressure. The sexual chemistry between Henry and Skye sizzles, and they can't avoid each other—or their past. Slowly and surely they finally talk about what went wrong—and what was right—about their love. Is it enough to save their marriage? Readers will get a glimpse of characters from Ms. Edwards's previous books, such as Devon and Danny. HOT UNDER PRESSURE is the last tale in the Rising Star Chef trilogy, and while it might be helpful to have read the prior two (TOO HOT TO TOUCH and SOME LIKE IT HOT) you can read this one as a standalone.

A sizzling, tasty tale to feed your romance reading habit, I highly recommend that you put HOT UNDER PRESSURE to the top of your book buying list.

Patti Fischer